


The Temptation of Richie

by beccaelizabeth



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Demons, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2000-06-25
Updated: 2000-06-25
Packaged: 2017-10-06 09:26:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beccaelizabeth/pseuds/beccaelizabeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missing scene from an episode that never happened.  Richie faces his demons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Temptation of Richie

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Given what TPTB did to all this I stand by my theory that the true Highlander story all belongs to the fans. But, you know, not legally. :-p

Richie moved through the shadowed racetrack carefully, mindful that Hunter traps could be the least of his worries. If Mac was right, if this was a demon they were fighting… he had to be prepared for anything. Yet as he turned the next corner he froze, wholly unprepared for what met him.

He faced himself, as he had been, as he was now and, perhaps, as he could be.

His younger self looked strange through his new eyes. Soft, somehow. The hair that had taken so long to get just right, and that got in his eyes if it got wet. His own face yet without any of the extra edges he saw in the mirror now. His own eyes, yet without the haunted look in them. These were eyes that had never seen a lover killed or a life lost at his hands. This was him as he could perhaps have been, had he never taken up the sword.

"If you never met MacLeod, what could you have been?" This youth asked him as if reading his thoughts. "He took a guy with a future, with every route open to him, and cut them all off."

"He gave me the break I needed…"

"He broke you! You could have had a life. You could have had a **family**. You could be living somewhere right now with Donna and the baby. Your **son**. You could have a job, work nine to five without looking over your shoulder all the time. But MacLeod took you in, put you someplace every Immortal in the state would see you, and waited. Psychos with swords, guys with guns. The break he gave you. You think you would have died if you hadn't met him?"

"Yeah." Rich replied in a grim, low voice. "I would have. In some grimy alley, breaking in the wrong window, hell maybe I'd get mugged by some drugged up asshole. I knew it then and I know it now- it was either get out or go down. Mac gave me the chance. What I did with it was all my own work. Yeah I could have had a family, but I could have had a life in jail or a major drug habit, and I know which was a lot more likely. I know the road I was on back then. I'll not blame Mac for the roads I've taken since."

"Will you blame him for what he has done then?" Asked the one on his left, the guy that was a virtual mirror image of himself.

This was who he had been in the very recent past- haunted, hunted, and determined not to go down alone. Yet this one had something about him that Richie himself had lacked. He had the look of one who had faced his demons and won.

"He made you a killer, then threw you out for doing what he did. He pretended to be your friend, but then he came for your head. You want to stand by him after that?"

"Mac is my friend. Even with everything between us, he is my friend. I care for him, I stand by him and I know he would stand by me."

"Really. So that whole thing after Mako was him standing by you. I guess the Dark Quickening was a whole big friendship thing. I know he was standing right by you when he had his sword in your guts. Maybe trying to take your head was just some male bonding thing, a gesture of affection. Maybe he only hits you because he loves you- that's a pretty good reason to stay, don't you think?"

"Shut up. That was different, he wasn't in control…"

"So next time he gets drunk or drugged or kills a friend or maybe just has a bad day, I guess you'll be right by him ready to be his punch bag. Or maybe you had the right idea in the first place. You could take him Richie. He thinks he knows you, but he doesn't. You've taken more heads than most guys your age. You're fast, you're strong, and you know his moves. You could take him and be done with it forever."

"Take my friend and face all his. Sounds like a very short forever to me."

"Come one, you know the Game goes on if you take his head or not. Who is the one person who has tried for your head and still lives?"

"Annie Devlin." Richie smirked.

An expression of brief annoyance flickered across his other self's face. "She walked away. Mac just keeps coming. Do you lie awake at night wondering how long it will be until Annie Devlin comes back for you?"

"Yeah. Her, and Felicia, and Gregor, and every other Immortal jerk who has ever threatened me. Don't try and make out Mac is my only nightmare. He's in the top ten, but killing him wouldn't end anything."

"You wouldn't just kill him- you would take his power. Think about it. His strength, added to yours. You could take on anyone. You could end the nightmares, by being strong enough to face anyone that ever came for you."

"Like MacLeod is. Right. He still gets the same dreams I do- kill or be killed. That's our life now. That's the way it is, the way it will be. If I wanted to stop running I could find some monastery to live in. I won't. Even with the Game and the Gathering and the fact that every Immortal in the world is after my head there are still some things worth living for, and friendship is one of them. Yeah there's a risk. Yeah, maybe one day I'll have to face him. I've known that for a long time- since Mako, maybe since before that. He is still my friend. I'll take a little fear for that."

"How about if you could end it all?" The final apparition spoke. The one opposite him, central to the demons. He dressed like Richie in every last detail, his twin, down to the coat on his back and the sword in his hand. And yet there was no mistaking the two. This man was power incarnate.

"Do not try to tell me you can end the Game. You can't do that."

"Why not? It's mine. It always has been." The other demon shrugged. He walked forward slowly, sword held loose, confiding rather than threatening. "You think it was the gods that said you could have forever, if you fought for it? Your kind usually does. To justify the killing, to tell themselves it was all worth it. Anger and anarchy, fear and chaos. Do you doubt the Game is all mine? So, why shouldn't I end it? Give you the Prize even."

"A Prize promised by a Demon. Yeah, that's something to believe in." Rich replied sarcastically.

"So you don't want it. You can still end the Game."

"By telling them your truth? You think they'll believe it?"

"Some will. Some wont. A lot of them just want a way out. Like you did. They live in fear. They try and lead a normal life but the Game wont let them. They look for a leader to show them another way. You could be that leader." His other self was circling him now, talking softly. He wasn't even trying to hide that this was temptation, classic and old style.

"Offer me the throne of the world, why don't you."

"Do you want it? I know you want this."

"I can't lead guys like Hyde out of killing whoever they like. They get off on it, they don't even want a way out."

"Oh yes, my loyal servants. I could give them to you."

"To lead."

"No."

"To kill." Richie whispered. "No…"

"You think you don't want to kill. Well I think you don't like the doubt. You face another Immortal, and it's not the fear of dying that's the worst for you. It's the fear of getting it wrong. Maybe the guy opposite you isn't such a bad guy. Maybe he's having a bad day. Maybe he could be your friend if you gave him the chance. You never know. You might tell yourself, tell your friends that 'he deserved it'. And they ask you 'Did you look into his soul?'. Right now you have to answer no. You could say yes."

"If I say yes. To killing my friend." Rich said in a hollow voice.

"You want to see him as I see him? All the dark places, all the secrets, all the lies. You already have. You faced him with all the walls down, and you didn't like what you could see. You know what he is."

"The Champion."

"Because he killed the real Champion. Because he's all that is left."

"The only one left to face you. If you think I'm falling for this you're out of your mind."

"One life for millions. You think it will be one of the good guys who win the Prize? Someone like MacLeod? Well let's think about it, what if it was MacLeod. So there he is, omnipotent, ruler of the world. He treats them all like one big clan, with him as the chief. Brotherly love, world peace. Isn't it sweet? Until one day, maybe soon, maybe late, MacLeod starts getting this look in his eye. He isn't feeling himself. Only this time, it wont just be you he's after. This time, he could take out the whole world before he sobers up. You want to let that happen?"

"It wouldn't be that way…"

"You think? You **know**? You're willing to bet the lives of millions on that?"

"Your friends." Added the image on the left.

"Your family." Chimed in the young man on the right.

The darkest demon stood once more in the centre. "You could have it all Richie. You could be the One. You could have the power. You could be… me." It finished simply, spreading its arms and letting Richie get a good look.

At a man like himself, but never wrong. At a man who didn't turn his back on the world but didn't have to fight any more. At a man with the power to do whatever he deemed necessary. A man with eyes that gleamed like lightning and blood, yet held no regrets.

A man with no more ghosts.

//I believe in the kind you carry with you. Everyone you've loved and everyone you've killed. They never leave you//

His victims, his lovers, his loss. His actions, his choices, his thousand regrets. **His**. Not the certainty or the ignorance or the power that this thing offered. His life.

"The life I've got is all the life I need." Richie said calmly, standing tall. "I'll stand or fall by my own efforts. And I will never be you."

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I'm as surprised as anyone - really ancient Highlander fanfic that I never posted before. Possibly because it's not very good. I don't know.
> 
> Not betaed because I realised a beta read means acting on their recommendations, and, er, well, I haven't worked on this since 17 minutes past midnight on 25th June 2000. I'd have to rewatch Highlander to have a clue how to improve it. So, here goes, posting.


End file.
